How do we teach our children to give?

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It is important we help our children understand that giving is not a once a year deal. Christmas time brings about many wonderful ideas. One of them is sharing with those less fortunate than ourselves. However, it is important we foster acts of kindness and sharing all year round.

Give year-round

First, we need to bring giving into our lives all year long. During the holiday season, it is easy to share our good fortune. Food drives, bell ringers, charity functions help us remember the needs of others.

People are hungry the other 364 days of the year! Do our children see us model charity and giving from January through November? If not, what message are we sending them: that hunger and pain and misery only exist at Christmas? That we should only respond to this need only at Christmas time?

Make giving real

Second, we need to make giving real to our children. Best strategy: get them involved.

One effective method for school-aged children is something like NPH Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos Organization or similar outreach efforts sponsored by many churches and charitable organizations. A family sponsors a child of designated age and sex, buying gifts and clothing for delivery by the charity.

Children do the shopping with you for the child you sponsor. It makes giving very, very real when a child chooses to buy his friend the radio-controlled car he hopes to find under his own tree! Do take a picture of the wrapped gifts and the young givers. Your children will not forget that shopping trip.

Everybody loves to buy toys for a three-year-old, but needy teens need love, too--and hats and scarves and games. Explain to your children why you have chosen those last few forlorn tags. They will understand the love you express when you make sure that even no-longer-cuddly children have a holiday gift, too.

Give being discreet

Third, make sure your right hand doesn't know what your left hand is doing. Tell your children why: it is no gift when we expect gratitude, appreciation, or attach strings to our offerings. We give, instead, to relieve need; to share the abundance with which we've been blessed; and to reflect to others the good that we find in the world. Giving with grace is reward enough!

Allow your children to sacrifice

Finally, give your children the chance to experience sacrifice in order to give. Even a small sacrifice on their part will reinforce a lesson on giving more than any other factor. Think of ways they can give like, giving a part of their allowance to contribute to the money spent on the gifts. Another example is going to the grocery store and deciding to go without their favorite cereal for a couple of weeks and using that money to buy help purchase a gift for someone else.

Source: http://christmas.organizedhome.com/celebrate/teaching-children-give?page=2